The Samurai School of Appliantology was one of those bold, foolish experiments on the web that was supposed to be a user-supported resource. The School has 1121 registered students and it costs $100/year to open the School without those hideous popup ads–that’s less than 10 cents per student! If only 20 students had contributed $5, that would have paid the bills. But less than a handful of students contributed. So, the Samurai School is now closed to new students. It is being left open for the time being so grasshoppers can browse it.

You can still seek the Samurai’s wisdom in the Appliantology group. The group has a message board, chat room, photo albums, and other features that make it a good venue for conveying appliance repair help.

Right now, it doesn’t cost anything to join the Appliantology group and membership is open to all. But the one-way gimmie ride is grinding to a halt. Soon, would-be members to the group will have to contribute something to join: beer money, technical information, appliance repair photos…something that contributes in some way to the group or its maintenance.